


til morning light

by gaytimetraveller



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, M/M, back at it again with the pixie hollow au, yknow how it is!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 23:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19711276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytimetraveller/pseuds/gaytimetraveller
Summary: Ventus manages to drag his recluse of a brother out for a picnic, and maybe it goes better than he'd thought it would. Maybe.





	til morning light

**Author's Note:**

> YEAHH time for pixie hollow au again i Love this one i really do i should probably set up a series for these. its late. we'll see. maybe if i write more
> 
> OH AND BEFORE I FORGET. yes i’m one of those people that uses rei for repliku

Vanitas was starting to think that maybe he shouldn’t have showed up. Not all that long ago, he’d had exactly one friend, who also happened to be his brother, and now here he was. Hanging out with not one, not two, but…four. Four other fairies. At the very least one of them was his brother. And one of them was Rei. He was something like friends with Rei.

But he was prickly with the other two. He’d heard of them before, which was worth something seeing as he probably wouldn’t have showed up if his brother had gone and invited a bunch of strangers out to their little meet-up. One of them was Ven’s friend, and he was the whole reason they’d ended up planning this in the first place. Vanitas had seen him around a few times before, one of the only other fairies he’d actually seeing making rounds at night, but they’d never actually met.

His name was Ephemera, and he had some kind of star-related talent. He mostly dealt in constellations, even carrying around a big book of marked down constellations and stars. Most of them were even neatly numbered off.

Vanitas felt a little smug about knowing, because Ephemera had let him hold the book and read through it while he was off setting up some contraption.

The other one with them was a friend of Rei’s. She was an art fairy, a sketchbook tucked under her arm, even here at night. She smiled and hummed tunelessly to herself, one arm looped through with Rei’s, occasionally elbowing him or leaning over to chat with Ventus. Her name was Naminé, and she’d been the one to actually bring along a neat little picnic basket with a few snacks inside. Although she’d gotten Rei to carry it, he didn’t seem to mind.

Once Ephemera had finished fiddling with his contraption, he fell back into the grass with a smile and a quiet  _ oof _ , and Vanitas quite suddenly realized he was the only one still standing. Cautiously, he inched his way to sit between Ventus and Rei, not that it mattered much considering Ventus and Naminé were leaning over both Rei and now him to gossip about some kind of goings-on with Sora.

Vanitas didn’t bother paying them much attention, even when his brother elbowed him by accident making some kind of hand gesture. It wasn’t because he wasn’t nosy. No, Ventus had already told him the latest gossip. Had taken up half of his evening with it. This was just the catch-up.

He turned to Rei, who looked even more awkward than he did. Just as he was about to ask if he wanted to have a look through Ephemera’s fancy star book with him, Ephemera himself rolled over and tapped him on the shoulder, asking for it back. Vanitas grumbled and handed it over.

Once Ephemera was settled, book in his lap and arms slung haphazardly over both Ven and Vani’s shoulders, Naminé started breaking out the snacks. Lemon squares? One she threw hit Ven straight in the nose. Rei awkwardly bumped his knee against Vanitas’, and looked away. Another lemon square sailed right over Ephemera’s head, and he scrambled off to get it. The one she awkwardly pitched at Vani was set to go past him too, but he managed to catch it, and then saved Rei from being hit in the forehead with his.

“Oh, um, thanks.”

Vanitas shrugged, unable to look him in the eye, or even up much further than the ground. “No problem.”

In an attempt at being discreet, Ventus elbowed him and motioned for him to lean in.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you catch my lemon square?” Ven almost sounded accusatory, which was a pretty funny thought really. He was about as harmless as…well, as harmless as anything got. Probably. Mostly.

Vani squinted at him, in that vague  _ ‘what the hell?’  _ kind of way, a look his brother was more than a little familiar with. It was an everyday occurrence really. A several times a day occurrence. “Cause you’re just my brother?”

Ven pouted. Dramatic as always. “So then what’s Rei?”

Neither of them answered. Ventus paused, then started to smile. Vanitas slowly started to frown, eyes going wide.

He started to lean back, “No, no, no! Shut up! Don’t say it!”

Ven snickered and poked him in the ribs. “He’s your friend! Say it! C’mon!”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Vanitas backpedalled, bumping into Rei, “Sorry!” and Ventus practically pounced at the chance.

“Say it! You’re friends! You  _ care _ about him!”

“No!”

Vanitas shrieked when Ventus poked his chest and shoved himself back further, and this time he knocked both himself and Rei over entirely. If he’d started flushing at his brother’s teasing before, well, now he was practically glowing with what he would never admit was embarrassment as his brother fell back laughing. He practically rolled around on the ground, cackling the entire time, to Vani’s even further embarrassment.

Then, someone coughed. Ven, Vani, and Rei all looked up to see both Naminé and Ephemera looking at them, smiling in a kind of bemused way.

“You done?” Naminé asked, polite as pie, even with Ephemera stifling a laugh beside her.

Awkwardly, Vanitas righted himself, and turned around to help Rei up, while his brother rolled over to lay face down on the ground for a moment before getting up.

For a few moments, all three of them awkwardly fidgeted as they sat back into place and started picking open their lemon squares. In those moments, Vanitas worried that maybe he’d ruined the evening, that maybe they’d all sit there and eat in that horrible awkwardness until it was time for all of them to disperse. But then, Naminé said something to Rei that had him cracking a smile, and Ephemera was laughing, and then it seemed like no time before the lemon squares were gone and conversation was easy.

Even if he wasn’t the most talkative, it didn’t feel like they were leaving him out, and that was the nicest for Vanitas. He’d been on the outside for a long time, in more ways than one. Even being friends with his brother had been a kinda tentative thing for a long time, and a lot of his brother’s friends hadn’t liked him being around one bit. But this was different, and it was easy, and it was fun to smile and laugh along, and he didn’t even mind when Ventus leaned over him again, or when Naminé accidentally kicked him, or when Ephemera used his shoulder as leverage to launch himself to his feet.

Once, a few years ago, Ventus had tried to give him some sudden half-assed one-armed hug and he’d nearly jumped out of his own skin. This kind of comfort was new. It was nice.

In what must’ve been an hour or more later, but what felt like much less, another fairy came speeding through, tapping Ephemera hurriedly on the shoulder, and that had him stumbling over his own feet to his contraption. She sped off again with a wave, and he called a loud “Thanks!” her way as she went.

“What’s up?” Naminé asked, peeking over her sketchbook. She’d been quick at work at  _ something _ for the last few minutes, something she wouldn’t let anyone see yet.

Ephemera practically bounced, sprinting back over for his book and flipping it open to a dog-eared page. “There’s a comet due to be by any minute! That’s what I’m watching for tonight!”

He dashed back over to the contraption, practically sliding the last little bit to look through it, still bouncing a little in place. Ventus rolled his eyes with a certain amount of fondness, and Naminé looked his way.

“Is he always like that?”

“Yep,” he popped the p, and Vanitas snorted.

“Oh yeah, Ven tells me about him all the time. He’s a bit, uh, what’s the word?”

“Loony?” Ventus threw out.

“Moony.”

Rei shrugged, a smooth roll of his shoulders. “Same thing.”

Vanitas looked down at the ground, still having a hard time keeping his eyes on him, and he caught Naminé raising an eyebrow at him on the way down. He coughed. “...Yeah. Same thing.”

Naminé flipped closed her sketchbook, and crawled over through the grass to whisper something in Ven’s ear that seemed to catch him off guard, but then he lit up and turned to his brother and oh, he was sure whatever this was meant certain death, but.

Then Ephemera let out a rather loud “THERE!” and everyone turned his way. He had his face in the contraption, but he was pointing at the sky with one hand, continuing on with “There! There! There! Look! There it is!”

Everyone looked up, just managing to catch it as a comet streaked through the sky, one quicksilver bright light against a near-cloudless night. Once it was gone, Ephemera stood up, scribbling something in his book and nearly dancing around.

“Yes! Yes! I caught it! Just on time!” he twirled around, before catching his foot on something and tripping over. Both Naminé and Ventus burst into giggles watching him try to right himself, taking his contraption down with him this time, and even Rei and Vanitas cracked smiles.

After that, it wasn’t long before they had to start packing up. It was late, and for most of them, they’d have to be up with the sun again in the morning. Before they parted ways, Naminé gathered everyone around, flipping open her sketchbook to show them all what lay inside.

She’d drawn a striking picture of everyone; it looked like Ventus was laughing at something, Ephemera motioning to the sky with his book in hand, and Rei busy throwing one of those lemon squares into his mouth. And Vanitas…he was smiling, really smiling, elbowing his brother and watching Rei eat. He felt, weirdly emotional seeing that. He didn’t think anyone had ever drawn him before, had ever wanted to, and never would he have guessed that he would’ve been smiling for it.

“Thanks,” he muttered, weirdly choked up in saying it. Naminé just smiled, knowingly, like she knew exactly how he felt.

She even ruffled his hair as she flitted off, the first to go out of everyone. Vanitas felt oddly touched about it all.

Next to go was Ephemera, book and contraption and everything all neatly bound up and tucked under one arm. He wasn’t actually off to bed yet like the rest of them, but rather off to finish whatever kind of work it was he had left to do. Vanitas thought that maybe, maybe he’d have to talk to him sometime. There weren’t a whole lot of other fairies that stayed up all night after all. Ven had said something about that once; something about sticking together. Maybe…he was right. For once. Vanitas was loathe to admit it.

Then, seeing as they were all headed in the same direction, Rei and the other two all started heading back together. It was actually quiet for most of the trip, with Vanitas feeling weirdly contemplative, and Ventus seemingly mulling something over, while Rei went along with them. When they had to stop first, for Vani’s house, Ven motioned for him to go and practically pushed Rei along behind him.

It felt far too awkward, to just leave without saying anything, so he turned to say goodbye to Rei and could see Ven giving him a thumbs up in the background. He sighed, fondly, not the kind of thing he was used to but not unwelcome either.

“I…I guess I’ll be seeing you around?” he almost cringed at his own words, but soldiered on through. “That was a nice time.”

Rei smiled, half awkwardly. “Yeah, that was nice. If you’re ever, uh, free again, I wouldn’t mind hanging out like that again. Like that? If you wanna do it again?”

“I’m free every night,”

Vanitas wished he didn’t blurt out things like that. Ventus always teased him about it, when he just said things. Thankfully, Rei didn’t say anything.

“Maybe I’ll see if…if anyone’s free next week?”

“Just not Sora.” Vani thought about what his brother had told him earlier, and how much mischief his little doppelganger seemed to have gotten himself into. He hoped it didn’t sound harsh but, really, he probably needed to sort some things out first, and would absolutely would drop doing that for some impromptu hangout. He knew Sora. They shared a face after all, it was a bit unavoidable.

Rei had eavesdropped on what Ven had told Naminé, and picked up that easily-missed quip with ease; even with a laugh. “Yeah, just not Sora.”

For several moments that seemed to go on just a little bit too long, they both stood there, unsure of who was supposed to say what next. Ventus was motioning something that Vanitas couldn’t make out, so he just sighed and stepped for the door.

“Well…goodnight?” he tried to smile, and Rei gave him an honest one back.

“Night. Sleep well,” and he stepped back off of the porch and took off. Vani watched him go, then turned around to open his own door.

When he was gone, Ventus sped in through his brother’s open door, just in time to flick him in the back of the head.

“What?”

Ven just gave him the biggest shit-eating grin he’d had in a while. “I was gonna ask if I could crash here, but I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow, and the other’s grin got bigger. He rolled his eyes and pointed his brother to the couch as he kicked the door closed.

“How about we talk about it in the morning?”

“What, are you calling an early night?”

He had half a mind to throw the mug he was picking up at his brother, but held back and put it down on the table. “I’m gonna make some drinks, then we’re going to bed. In the morning.”

Ventus sighed, but flopped down on the couch all the same.

Vanitas might not have been entirely sure what his brother was on about, but he was sure it spelled certain doom for him, especially if his grin when he handed him his mug of hot cocoa was anything to go by. Yeah. Definitely doomed.


End file.
